Knights pound Cloverdale, Trojans fall 6-5

Lower Lake's Isazah King lost the grip on his bat, which ended up in the stands, during the Trojans' 6-5 North Central League I loss to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves on Thursday afternoon in Lower Lake. (minennaphotography.com)

KELSEYVILLE -- Logan Tate was pretty much a mystery to the Kelseyville Knights in 2013. On Thursday, he was the main course.

Tate, a pitcher for the Cloverdale Eagles, allowed 10 runs in his only two innings of work as the Knights prevailed 11-1 in six innings in the North Central League I opener for both of these varsity baseball teams at Lloyd Larson Field in Kelseyville.

"He pitched 14 innings against us last year," Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said. "We scored two runs in the first inning against him and he shut us out the final 13."

Tate went 1-1 against the Knights in league play last season. Thursday was an entirely different story as Kelseyville batted around in the bottom of the first, sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring seven times. Tate certainly contributed to his own downfall with five walks. The Knights did the rest with six hits.

Kelseyville (1-0 league, 6-2 overall) didn't let up in the second, scoring three more against Tate, two on a double by Jafeth Silva, who also had a sacrifice fly in the first inning.

"The first three innings we looked like a great team," Poloni said.

Kelseyville committed three of its four errors on the day in the top of the fourth, but winning pitcher Noah Lyndall minimized the damage and allowed just the one run.

"We did a good job of keeping it small," Poloni said.

Both teams agreed to move the game up a day because of a weather forecast that calls for another storm to hit the area today. While Thursday's action was contested under threatening skies, not a single raindrop fell, according to Poloni.

Lyndall worked the first five innings for the victory, allowing Cloverdale's only two hits, striking out four and walking five. He also went 2-for-4 with a RBI.

Jonathan Villarreal anchored the Knights' 10-hit attack by going 3-for-3 with a RBI. Brandon Huber went 2-for-3 with a RBI.

In other baseball action Thursday:

Fort Bragg 6, Lower Lake 5

At Lower Lake, Fort Bragg pushed across the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh inning to edge the Lower Lake Trojans, who were once again the victim of their own mistakes.

"We fought back a couple of times and tied it up, but our errors in the infield are killing us. Our errors are allowing runs to score," Lower Lake coach John McCarthy said of the Trojans' four miscues on the day. "I'm really frustrated and I know the kids are, too. Our bats are all hitting good and our outfield defense is good, but we're making too many errors in the infield."

After falling behind 3-0 after two innings, the Trojans pulled even with a run in the third and two in the fourth. Both teams scored twice in the sixth inning to make it 5-5.

David Rank, working in relief of starter Josh McCarty, took the loss. McCarty went 3-for-3 with a double for the Trojans, who out-hit the Timberwolves 9-4. Ryan McCarthy added a two-run single.